Thursday, September 20, 2007

I think I made a big mistake!

I was sitting here at work listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Rock N Roll Geek Show, and the host, Michael Butler, read a review of a Van Halen rehearsal that took place in L.A., I believe. The guy said even though there were only a small group of people, the whole stage show was rolled out and the VH boys treated them like they were an arena full of people. The reviewer also gave a set list and I will go through that on the next Bombay Gunrunners episode. Then I saw a youtube video of still pictures of the rehearsal. I have to say, and I back this up with 33 years of staunch heterosexuality, David Lee Roth looked good. Well, except for the short hair and that little jowly bit under his cheeks, he looked ripped.

I then hit the jackpot and before I go on I must say that the cellphone and I have had a tentative relationship at best. I hardly use it, the batteries seem to run down in an hour, the NEW AT & T has stupid billing cycles when it comes to me, but I must say, God bless you cellphone. I have found a veritable cornucopia of cellphone vids of the rehearsals and seeing them makes me believe I made a huge mistake in not forcing Big Kev to drive me to St. Louis to see Van Halen. I may have to work in some blackmail to achieve this, but something has to be done. And as a treat for you, my fellow VH fans, I will link those vids and you can see for yourself what I have been watching all morning.

Vid 1: This is the only full song that I have seen recorded so far and it is Romeo Delight off the Women and Children First album. The sound quality is crappy compared to most of these vids, but you get to see the whole song performed and it will fire your arse up.

Vid 2 & Vid 3: These two videos are of the song Unchained off the Fair Warning album. The sound is a little better on these two.

Vid 4 & Vid 5: In these two videos you get to see and hear the great Edward Van Halen perform his guitar solo or parts of it. Vid 4 is a song called Cathedral off the Diver Down album and Vid 5 is the end of the classic Eruption off Van Halen's self titled debut.

Vid 6: This next clip is of the song Beautiful Girls off the Van Halen 2 album and you get a chance to hear that classic VH harmony. Ah yeah, beautiful girls! Also, you may remember this song from the SNL commercial for Schmitz's Gay Beer.

Vid 7: This is a clip from Panama of the 1984 album. It sounds amazing.

Vid 8: This is a longer clip that is some different songs spliced together, Ice Cream Man from the self titled album, Jump from 1984, Hot for Teacher from 1984, Pretty Woman from Diver Down, and a clip from Alex Van Halen's drum solo. It is kind of a mini version of the Van Halen show.

Vid 9: The audio is crappy on this compared to some of the others, but it is a clip of Somebody Get Me a Doctor from Van Halen II. It sounds good even with crap audio.

Vid 10: More crappy audio but of a great song, Dance the Night Away off the Van Halen II album. And if my ears do not deceive me, I think you can just hear the band go into Atomic Punk from the self titled album.

Vid 11: This is a video, or slide show if you will, featuring still photos of the band during the rehearsal concerts. In these pics you can really see that DLR is not f'n around when it comes to being in shape for a long tour.

So there you go. I am done geeking out, at least for the next hour or so.

A few things, why is DLR dressed like a cowboy? The only thing missing from the group besides Michael Anthony seems to be long hair. It's a shame we couldn't also reunite Eddie and DLR's hair for this tour. As for Wolfgang, he seems to be holding his own and is at least the same size as Michael Anthony. If you listen to the Bombay Gunrunners next week we will talk about the set list and it seems that VH is ready to play around 25 songs not counting guitar and drum solos. I am even more excited to see them live and even more depressed that I have not got tickets.